The recent work week

One of the special things about this week was that my colleague Nancy Ackles, whom I know from various connections in the U.S. and who has a Fulbright grant similar to mine this spring in Tashkent Uzbekistan, came to spend a week doing the English Teacher Mentor (ETM) program. We were able to share several meals together, including this Sunday afternoon picnic in the Botanical Garden.

Since she had to catch a plane before the ETM finished, on Saturday at 11 am she passed the baton on to me...

...and I wrapped up with these English language teachers from around Tajikistan. Groups of three were doing 15-minute demo lessons and then the rest of the cohort were supposed to give them feedback. I drew from their feedback and provided advice on best practices for observing colleagues and mentoring others.

I was thankful that Nancy was able to do the bulk of this intensive program, with a M/T/W group of secondary teachers and a Th/Fr/Sa group of university teachers, since that enabled me to do my regular job.

My job this week started off with me being a judge for the national spelling bee at the American Corner…

It was inspiring to see all the work everyone had done--contestants, AC staff, and AC volunteers. The latter included a robot (made by students working in AC's Maker Space) to do the sample, amazing decorations, fun mascots, a flash mob, and a surprise birthday party for the coordinator.

I also taught my regular classes including my methodology class at MGU--with a couple of new teachers joining us.